


Both Ends of the Candle

by Lunette3002



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batbrothers (DCU), Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Good Older Sibling Dick Grayson, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, Good Sibling Tim Drake, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Human Trafficking, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd-centric, Protective Batfamily (DCU)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunette3002/pseuds/Lunette3002
Summary: “No.”“No?” Tim said, head tilted as if he was studying Jason’s face behind the blank red helmet. “‘No’ as in you don’t need help, or you didn’t see anything, or you weren’t heading anywhere important?”For a fleeting moment, Jason imagined himself dropping onto the bed in his closest safehouse and letting the tension and willpower that–if he were being honest–was keeping him upright drain from his body, leaving him like a limp, deflated balloon. That felt important.—Or, Jason exhausts himself and may need some help noticing
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 32
Kudos: 358





	Both Ends of the Candle

**Author's Note:**

> For non-native speakers or anyone who doesn't know the idiom: "To burn the candle at both ends" means to work long hours without rest or to exhaust oneself by working too much.

A vigilante’s work was never finished but tonight in particular felt like it had been never ending. Jason had heard a rumor nearly a week ago that some kids were going to be trafficked out of Gotham soon, and he refused to end another night empty-handed. Jason kept his eyes trained on the warehouse across the street from where he perched, silent and still.

His list of leads had become shorter and shorter, but that’s not to say that Jason hadn’t had a productive week. He had busted nine shady warehouses in the last five days, but they had only ever turned up drug or weapon smuggling operations. Jason let out a long sigh. The outside of this building didn’t look any more promising as there was no unusual activity he could see. No activity at all really. Nothing on his thermal cam besides a few rats. Just another dead end.

Jason gritted his teeth as he pushed himself to his feet. He’d come out early tonight and it was a little after the time the bats typically turned in, and he was really feeling the extra hours he’d spent on patrol right now. His shoulders felt somehow both tense and limp, his legs ached, and his helmet was starting to feel too heavy for his stiff neck. Actually, all of his gear felt like it was dragging him down. Jason refused to admit that it might be the exhaustion doing that. He had too much to do.

He’d make his way to a safehouse, strip out of his gear, and do some detective work from there. There wasn’t much more he could accomplish on the streets tonight. He could go back to tearing Gotham apart tomorrow.

For all he knew, there was no child trafficking taking place in Crime Alley (right now) and the tip had just been wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time. But Jason knew he’d keep going the next night because if kids got taken on his watch when he could’ve stopped it, he’d never forgive himself.

Jason took his time walking across the roof, trying to shake off the excessive gravity pulling at him and gather the energy to make it back to his safehouse. He shook out his cold fingers as he did so, then took off running, grappling gun in hand.

His pounding footsteps were more jarring than usual and when Jason took a hard landing on a roof a few blocks later, he found himself dropping hard on his knees with his legs feeling like lead. Okay, maybe he _was_ tired. Sue him.

“See something?” a voice said, a foot from Jason’s ear.

The sudden adrenaline rush gave Jason the needed drive to force his legs to cooperate with him as he stood and spun to face whoever had managed to sneak up on him. He found himself pointing his gun down between Red Robin’s eyes. Tim rocked back a bit from where he was crouched while Jason stood breathing hard.

Tim gave a hesitant smile, “Hi?”

Over the pounding of his heart, Jason asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Um, I was in the area and you looked you were heading somewhere important, so I decided to follow you to check if you needed help when you stopped, so I thought you saw something, but–”

“Kid.”

Tim’s mouth twitched like he wanted to frown or say something, but instead he kept a blank expression as he slowly brought his hand up from the ground to Jason’s own. The instant before he touched Jason’s wrist, Jason realized he was still pointing a gun right at his younger brother and jerked his hand up and away before holstering the gun shakily.

Jason turned away from Tim to survey the area where he had been forced to stop. As the adrenaline faded away, the shakiness didn’t as his overworked muscles begged for rest, but he refused to let it show. He’d had worse.

“No.”

“No?” Tim said, head tilted as if he was studying Jason’s face behind the blank red helmet. “‘No’ as in you don’t need help, or you didn’t see anything, or you weren’t heading anywhere important?”

For a fleeting moment, Jason imagined himself dropping onto the bed in his closest safehouse and letting the tension and willpower that–if he were being honest–was keeping him upright drain from his body, leaving him like a limp, deflated balloon. That felt important.

Nope. The kids of Crime Alley were more important. He still had things he needed to do for them tonight.

“Hood?”

Jason forced himself back to the present and in what he hoped was an annoyed tone of voice said, “Go home, Red.” His knees were stinging from where they had connected with the surface of the roof and he wanted this interaction to be over so he could be on his way before he did something embarrassing like letting his legs give out again like they wanted. He locked his knees instead when Tim kept talking.

“You’ve been going pretty hard these last couple days, right?” Tim started, rising out of his crouch. “It’s been really impressive actually. But if there’s something big that we need to know about, you have–”

“I don’t _have_ to do anything, Replacement,” Jason snarled, real anger breaking through his haze of exhaustion. His hands clenched into fists by his sides as he took a step towards Tim and continued. “You don’t get it. None of you do. I don’t just give a fuck when it’s convenient. I do a good job taking care of my part of the city. And I do a fucking excellent job taking care of the people here.” An image of kids sitting trapped in the dark, alone and afraid, flashed through his mind. He let the burst of rage fuel him into stalking towards the edge of the roof, away from a frozen Red Robin. “I don’t want to catch you telling me what I _have_ to do to take care of them.”

Tim made no move to follow him as he swung off, but he put some distance between them to be sure before turning in the direction of one of his many safehouses and continuing his journey.

~~~*~~~

Jason nearly smashed through his window when he finally landed on the safehouse’s fire escape with more momentum than he’d meant to have. He dropped his grapple gun on the metal grating under his feet and slammed his hands into the frame to stop himself, but then he just stood there. His eyes stung with dryness every time he blinked and he slowly tipped his head forward until his helmet was resting against the window. Letting his eyes slip shut for a moment, he just breathed.

His brief irritation with Tim hadn’t been nearly enough fuel to get him here and he’d had to rely on stubbornness for the rest. But now that he was here, he made no move to go in. He knew more work was waiting for him inside. He wasn’t avoiding it; he’d get there.

All he needed was a minute…

Cold pressed into his dully-stinging knees and when he opened his eyes, he realized that he’d let himself sink down until he was kneeling, helmet still resting against the building. Wind slipped around his jacket and into the cracks in his armor, chilling the sweat sitting on his skin from patrol. His skin tingled as goosebumps rose, and he shivered. The cold just made him feel the weight of his bones even more.

His chest tightened when he realized that he may have to call it quits for the night. Guilt washed over him and he had to press his gloved hands flat into the rough brick of the building to ground himself before he drowned. Why did ending patrol empty-handed tonight make him feel so much worse than the last few days combined?

A sudden shout of “Hood!” was the only warning he got before feet slammed into the metal next to him.

He jerked himself to the side using one leg to force distance between him and his attacker while simultaneously kicking out with the other. His sturdy boot was carelessly brushed aside from its path and then there were hands on him.

“Jay! Did you fall? Where are you hurt? How far was it? Are you okay?” Questions flew out of his attacker’s mouth and Jason blinked his eyes hard to process the image in front of him as his struggles died. It felt like his mind was working through molasses as Jason traced black and blue hands up black and blue arms to a black chest adorned with a blue bird and finally up to a masked face.

“Jason!” Nightwing’s voice rose in pitch along with his frantic energy.

All at once, everything snapped back into clarity.

“I’m fine,” he started with, trying to calm his nearly panicking brother and placing a hand on one of his wrists, “I didn’t fall.”

Dick was breathing a little too fast and his grip on Jason’s shoulders tightened as he asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing. I just needed to catch my breath.” Jason released Dick’s wrist to bring his gloved hands behind him and press them into the metal grating as he lurched his way upright. Dick followed him up, attention and hands still locked onto Jason.

“You’re really okay?”

“Yeah.” Jason turned his head to inspect the other buildings around them to avoid his brother’s piercing gaze. “Where’d you even come from?”

Dick reluctantly released one of his shoulders to gesture vaguely to one of the taller buildings on the other side of the alley. “I was across the way and saw you…” At this, Dick reached out for him again, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Jason opened his mouth to scoff when his eyes landed on his grapple. And then the reality of all Dick had seen slammed into him. Jason, slumped on a fire escape halfway down the building, grapple blindly discarded or lost nearby, unmoving. _'Did you fall?’_ He felt the sudden urge to apologize.

“Do you want to come inside?” Jason blurted instead.

Dick’s spandex covered arms finally dropped from Jason’s as he stared at his prickly younger brother, lenses of his domino mask huge in surprise.

When Dick didn’t say anything, Jason continued awkwardly, “Patrol’s basically over for you, right? And you’re already here.” He refused to fidget, so instead he turned to his window and started disarming his security.

The silence stretched between them, and Jason glanced over his shoulder to see his brother scrutinizing him.

Defensiveness snaked up Jason’s back, but he forced it under a teasing tone. The offer was for Dick’s benefit and he didn’t want to ruin this. “Goldie? If I broke your brain, B is gonna be pissed.”

That seemed to shake Dick out of whatever he’d been thinking, and he realized he still needed to answer. “Oh, um, yeah. I would love to come in, Jay. I was actually, um…”

Jason’s shoulders relaxed slightly at that. With the tentative assurance that his brother wouldn’t hate spending time with him, and the prospect of getting inside literally at his fingertips as he pulled the window open, Jason could feel the exhaustion coming back in full force. “You were actually…” Jason prompted absently as he bent to pick up his grapel and strap it back onto his belt.

“Nothing,” Dick said, forcing a nonchalant smile on his face when Jason turned back.

With a sigh and shake of his head at his brother’s strange behavior, Jason swung his leg through the window, tossing a simple, “whatever. Come on,” over his shoulder.

“Oh, I’m right on time.” Jason jerked, smacking his helmet into the bottom of the window at the voice coming from inside his apartment.

“Replacement,” Jason said, hiding his bewilderment in a growl as Dick called from the fire escape, “Hey Timmy!”

“What does it take for people in this family to respect boundaries?” Jason asked in exasperation, but he didn’t have the energy to actually get worked up about it.

Once he finished dragging himself inside, he switched on a standing lamp and unlatched his helmet, dropping it on a table by his sofa. Like most of the other furniture in this and his other safehouses, they were mismatched and second-or more-hand. The sofa was one of his more comfortable ones, which made him wonder for a second if he had invited the universe to send him these birds who were now having a silent conversation from his still open front door through his still open window.

“What is up with you two? And more importantly, what are you doing here Timbo? Actually, more-more importantly, you’re both letting in a draft and it’s not exactly summer outside.”

Tim ignored his questions, but he did shut Jason’s front door and vanished his lockpicks into his shoulder bag. He’d apparently had the time since Jason saw him on the rooftop earlier to get dressed down into civvies and his shower-damp hair was pulled back into a small ponytail. _How long exactly did he spend on his fire escape?_ Walking over to Jason’s couch, Tim stayed silent as he set his bag down, before looking up innocently. “I can’t come see my big brother?”

“How’d you know Dickwing was gonna be here?” Jason needled.

Dick’s smile was brighter than before when he came up from his roll through the window. “He’s talking about you, Jay.”

Jason waited until he peeled off his domino mask to roll his eyes at them both, to make sure they couldn’t miss the gesture. The mask followed the helmet, then he took a moment to rub his eyes while mumbling what was meant to be, “show off,” and “I know he was talking about me,” and, “it’s called sarcasm,” but may or may not have been unintelligible as he dragged his hands from his eyes down his face. Dick and Tim shared a worried look. Maybe ‘tired exasperation’ was an ambitious mark to hit when the only thing he could summon was, ‘tired’.

To escape further scrutinization by two of the people raised by the “world’s greatest detective,” Jason turned to move towards the back of the apartment. After ducking into his bedroom, Jason mustered some energy in his voice as he announced, “I might’ve invited you in, D, but I’m still taking first shower,” before disappearing into the bathroom.

He _wasn’t_ hiding. _Or_ running away. He’d still have to see them once he was done…. Jason suppressed a groan.

The cheap showerhead practically pressure-washed Jason's back after he’d scrubbed himself clean, but while it stung, it had the benefit of pounding out his sore muscles. Steam filled the air and his body relaxed as it warmed up after hours of overworking it in the chilly air of Gotham. His earlier dreams of oozing into his bed were quickly becoming replaced with the impulse to ooze right here onto the cramped floor of the shower.

But his brothers were outside. If he were alone, maybe he’d indulge for a bit, but for now, Jason shook his head once, sharply, pushed a breath of air out between his teeth, and killed the water.

After scrubbing his face extra hard with the towel to gain back some alertness–he could’ve set the shower to cold for a minute before getting out, but he wasn’t a masochist–he pulled on the clothes including soft sweatpants and a t-shirt he had grabbed for pajamas for himself.

He was so close to being able to sleep. Once he got his brothers to either settle down or leave, he could get some rest. He just needed to figure out why Tim was here first, and then maybe just go into his room and not come back. Realistically, there’s no way he could get them to leave before they wanted to, but maybe they’d leave him alone if he was out before they could wonder where he’d gone.

“Shower’s free,” he called, dropping his armor back in his room. He stopped at the end of the hall connecting his bedroom and living room and leaned on the wall as he looked at his brothers on his couch.

Tim was hunched across Dick’s feet in his lap in order to reach his laptop where it sat on Jason’s low coffee table. Dick was watching the screen from where he was reclined against the far arm of the sofa in sweatpants, socks, and a hoodie, all of which were Jason’s.

Jason passed a quick hand over his shower-warm face before groaning, “if you got my clothes all nasty, you’re washing them.”

Dick looked away from Tim’s laptop, “I actually showered before I came.”

“But you showed up in the Nightwing suit?”

“I was done for the night but decided to head back out, and I grabbed a fresh suit and wasn’t even in it for very long, so you don’t need to worry about your clothes,” Dick said with a huff.

“Why would you go back–”

Tim hunched his shoulders further when he felt Jason’s gaze land on him. But just as quickly, he forced his shoulders straight and looked over at Jason unapologetically. “I called him.”

After a deep breath, Jason challenged, exhaustion leaking back into his voice, “And you felt it was your place to do that, _why_?”

“I was worried about you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

Tim’s eyes flashed with annoyance and he had just opened his mouth again when Dick slapped his hand over it from behind.

“Oookay,” Dick said to the room at large. More quietly, he said, “Sheesh Tim, what happened to approaching this gently?”

“Approaching _what_ gently?” Jason pushed off the wall and entered the room fully.

Dick started slowly, “Tim mentioned that you’ve been burning the candle at both ends, so to speak. And I know your cases are important to you–”

“They’re important, _period,_ ” Jason snapped. Feelings were bubbling in his chest, trying to push past the exhaustion that was keeping everything muted and heavy.

“Of course!” Dick agreed, jumping up from the couch and closing the distance between them. His face turned serious as he locked eyes with Jason. “ _But_. Everyone needs a break sometimes. You’re running yourself ragged, and it worries me. It worries Tim.” Dick gestured in Tim’s direction. Tim approached them before nodding in silent, earnest agreement.

“I’m fine,” Jason said, his voice flat despite how irrationally upset he was starting to feel. This was all so stupid. He was stupidly tired and he was pretty sure that that was feeding into the swirling feelings in his chest. Getting upset because he was tired was _stupid_. Little kids got upset when they needed a nap, and Jason was a whole ass adult. “Anyway, you guys work the same hours I do, maybe you need a break.”

“Jason.” Tim was unimpressed.

Dick spared him a glance before looking back at Jason, “We do, sure, but we share the work between the whole team.”

At that, Jason stilled even as his body went tense. Dick continued, apparently oblivious. “Sure, we take our fair share of solo cases, but most of the time _we_ don’t work alone.”

Tim’s eyes, however, were flicking over Jason’s posture and then between his two older brothers. “Dick…” he started hesitantly.

Dick plowed on. “And on patrol, Oracle directs us to reported crimes, so we can conserve some of the energy that would be spent finding them. Gotham’s a big place but we have enough people to cover what needs to be covered and we can count on having backup from the team.”

There was a pressure in Jason’s throat and head that felt ugly and painful. It had been a while since he had had a major Lazarus flare-up, but he’s also been resigned to a “when” not an “if.”

“Stop,” Jason spoke, forcing the word out of his tight throat.

Tim reached out to Dick a little anxiously, “Dick, maybe we should leave it here.”

“No. This needs to be said.” Dick took a deep breath and when he looked back up, his eyes were a bit sad. “Jay, I can see how tired you are. It’s okay to be tired. But I’m terrified that you’re going to keep pushing and get yourself killed because you think you’re alone. And I’m terrified that if we come to you, you’ll feel suffocated and push us away even further. I wish you would believe us when we say we want you around. You don’t have to take on the world alone. We’ll have your back if you just _ask_.”

The pressure peaked and–

“Oh Little Wing…”

Jason felt tears drip down his face. “Shit,” he choked out, jerking back and grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes. None of them moved for a moment, but he felt their stunned and concerned gazes on his back when he turned away, and he was hit with the sudden need to not let them see any more.

He started forward blindly, shaking as he tried to even his hitching breath. A few feet was as far as he made it before he realized that his apartment wasn’t that big and he’d just ended up in the corner of the living room. It wasn’t far enough. An irrational part of his mind said that it would never be far enough, knowing that his brothers had seen him like this and knowing how badly he’d failed at holding himself together. At doing his job.

The last dregs of energy in his body were going towards desperately suppressing his growing sobs. Without the energy to spare to keep him upright, Jason let gravity take him, and his knees hit the floor for the third time that night. Head bowed, he curled his arms around himself and dug his fingers into his arms, trying to hold himself together by force. It wasn’t working.

But then a warm hand landed on his shoulder, then slid to the other until it was easing him away from the corner and into Dick’s chest. “Shh, Jaybird, I’ve got you.” Dick’s other arm wrapped around him in a hold that Jason couldn’t help but feel safe and warm in, which somehow made him cry harder. “Shh, you’re okay. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” Jason’s breath hiccuped in his chest. “I don’t e-even know why–”

Dick shook his head and pressed a kiss to his temple before starting to rock them gently. “You’re tired. And overtaxed. And,” Dick tightened his arms around Jason, “I pushed. I’m sorry.”

Tim lowered himself to the floor on Jason’s other side so his back was against the wall but their legs rested against each other. “Yeah, wow, Dick being the emotionally incompetent one? The world must be ending. What do you think, Jay? Should we check if he’s an imposter?”

When Jason snuck a glance at him, Tim wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, he was staring out at the room behind Jason and Dick’s backs, almost as if he was standing guard for them.

“I’m not an imposter.” Dick’s harassed tone contrasted with the soft circles he started rubbing over Jason’s back.

“And that’s just what an imposter would say,” Tim said with a smirk, eyes still roaming over the room.

The easy banter gave Jason a moment to gather himself. The thoughtful inattention and protection got Jason to steady his breath enough to speak.

“I’ve done a shit job this week.”

“No,” Tim’s eyes immediately flicked to him so he could jab a finger into his shoulder harder than necessary before looking away again, “no you didn’t. You’ve put in a lot of work this week. I told you earlier I was impressed, right?”

Tim gave a little sigh and looked down at his hands where they were fidgeting in his lap. “I’ve always struggled with this too, but I also get how important it is to remind yourself: Even if you can’t solve a case, or catch a bad guy, or even save a life, that doesn’t negate all the other good you’ve done.” Tim finally looked back at him and caught his eyes, a surprisingly fierce expression in them, “so cut that ‘shit job’ stuff out.”

He felt Dick nod from where his cheek was resting on Jason’s hair, “he’s right, Little Wing. It’s written all over you that you’ve given it your all. Think you’re ready for some help?”

At the prospect of finishing this endless case, Jason just couldn’t say no. “I got a tip last week about kids that may be getting trafficked from the Alley,” he started. Before he could continue, however, Dick pulled away. Jason’s breath gave a residual hitch as he tensed, but then Dick was pulling them to their feet.

“Let’s get off the floor first, and then we can get it all sorted out, okay?”

Dick was strong and steady for him as Jason stumbled to the couch. If he had thought he was exhausted before, he clearly hadn’t had the forethought to realize how much crying would take out of him. Jason all but collapsed onto the couch the instant he was in range, practically dragging Dick down with him.

“Where are you keeping your current case notes?” Without him noticing, Tim had grabbed Jason’s laptop and opened it beside his own on the coffee table. “Oh, nevermind, they’re right here.”

Jason opened his mouth to say something, anything really, but Dick started pulling on Jason’s arm until he questioningly followed the movement. He found himself with his head resting on Dick’s leg. Tim shifted slightly so Jason could still see the screens.

“These are good. This should be enough to get me started for now. Anything to add from tonight?”

Dick’s fingers were in his hair and Tim was quietly typing on the laptops and Jason hummed a negative before his eyes slid shut of their own accord.

~~~*~~~

A gust of chilled air brought Jason back to awareness. He heard the window shut quietly and swallowed around the lump in his throat. _Of course they had to leave. This was nice, but now they’ve got what they need for the case, and that takes priority. I can’t expect them to be stuck here forever. At least they left me a blanket._ The warmth along his back comforted him enough to open his eyes and accept his reality.

There was a mop of black hair in his field of view. It was back-lit by what Jason figured was probably a phone with the brightness turned up too high in the otherwise dark room. If that wasn’t enough of an indicator, Jason watched as Tim picked up his head and turned it towards the window. He was still sitting on the floor against the couch, a blanket now draped over his legs, both laptops shut. As Jason watched, the beacon in his hand swung the beam of light to illuminate the far side of the room.

“Todd,” a haughty voice started before the speaker had walked into view. Jason rolled his eyes closed while ignoring the growing warmth in his chest. “We must discuss–”

The warm weight on Jason’s back shifted and then a slightly mumbled, “Dami?” sounded from behind him. Dick sat up the rest of the way from where he must’ve been draped over Jason, leaving his back feeling cold.

Jason heard Tim’s phone click off, before he pushed the blanket off of his legs and walked over to their youngest brother.

“Oh, he’s sleeping _now_ , is he?”

There was a rustle of paper before Tim said, “Damian, are these statistics on when Jason’s been out as Hood?”

Jason opened his eyes again.

“No!” Damian said, snatching back the papers. He was scowling fiercely as he worked to shove them into his hoodie pocket. The streetlights from outside the window gave his face just enough illumination to show his blush, too.

“B’s teachings are gonna be your downfall on that one, because that graph is clearly labeled–”

Damian clicked his tongue, “As if I needed to be taught to properly label my data.”

“So you _don’t_ deny it.”

Damian’s face twisted in indignation and he opened his mouth before Dick shot his hand towards him, shushing him furiously.

“If you wake Jason up, I swear to god I’m going to throw you in the garbage!” Dick hissed quietly.

Jason couldn’t help the snort that escaped him. For a moment he tried to muffle his laughter in Dick’s leg before turning his head to look up at his brother. Still chuckling he asked, “Really, Dickhead?”

Dick looked down at Jason with a little frown before his attention swung back to Damian. “I said what I said.”

Before any of them could react, Dick had slipped his thigh out from where Jason’s head had been resting on it, and dove over the couch to grab Damian.

“Richard!” Damian shrieked at full volume, limbs flailing ungracefully, “let me go!”

“Sorry Little D,” Dick said with a grin, “no can do.”

“Um…” Jason started eloquently, sitting up.

On his way back to the couch, Dick managed to free one of his hands so that he could grab onto the front of Tim’s shirt too. He dropped Damian in Jason’s lap with a distracted comment of, “hold this,” before pushing Tim down on the couch next to him and gathering up Tim’s blanket from the floor.

Jason sat perfectly still, eyes flicking over Damian in search of weapons or signs of an attack, but none came. Dick let out an exasperated laugh at Jason’s wide eyes and maneuvered them both so Jason was turned with his back to Dick’s chest and Damian still on his lap. To ensure they stayed that way, Dick hooked an ankle around Tim’s legs and dragged them to rest on top of Damian’s, effectively trapping them.

There was a moment of tension from the three younger brothers as they confirmed that no one was about to blow a gasket, but it seemed that they were all going to tolerate Dick’s doting and assembled cuddle pile tonight. Jason, Tim, and Damian shared a look of fond exasperation as Dick shook out the one blanket to rest over the three sets of legs tangled on the middle cushion.

Dick reached across the back of the couch, flailing his hand in the air, “Timmy give me your hand. You’re so far away and you deserve cuddles too.” 

“I’m not that far away. This couch is not that big,” Tim said before catching Dick’s hand anyway.

“But we all fit, don’t we?” Dick said, sounding delighted.

The three youngest made near-identical skeptical hums.

Dick gave a soft chuckle. “Shush, it’s time to sleep,” he said. He passed his free hand over Damian’s shoulder a few times before moving it to Jason’s head and applying gentle pressure until Jason’s head was resting on his older brother’s shoulder. Dick’s fingers started stroking through Jason’s hair.

“If my legs fall off, I’m blaming you, Goldie,” Jason said, even as he closed his eyes once more.

Damian started, “I’m sure there are other places–”

“No. Shush. Good night.”

Tim spoke up too, “I think he’s right. Maybe we should–”

“I said good night!”

The moment of quiet stretched before Jason opened his mouth again to speak. “Wait, so if Damian’s on me, am I the garbage, or?”

“ _Jason!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Comments of any length clear my skin and water my crops
> 
> I hope you have a wonderful day :)


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